Publications

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2006
Book

Invisible Engines: How Software Platforms Drive Innovation and Transform Industries

By: David S. Evans, Andrei Hagiu and Richard Schmalensee

Keywords: Digital Platforms; Applications and Software; Innovation and Invention; Transformation

2024
Working Paper

Prozac—Controversial Blockbuster: Case Histories of Transformational Advances

By: Amar Bhidé, Srikant M. Datar and Katherine Stebbins

This case history describes the development of Prozac, a blockbuster drug that transformed the treatment of depression – and became a cultural phenomenon in the United States. Specifically, we chronicle the: 1) prior treatments for depression and the research that... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Technology Adoption; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Invention; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms

Article

Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and the Market for Digital Information Goods

By: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Andres Hervas-Drane

We study competitive interaction between two alternative models of digital content distribution over the Internet: peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing and centralized client-server distribution. We present microfoundations for a stylized model of p2p file sharing where all... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Distribution; Internet and the Web; Information Infrastructure; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Strategy; Profit; Price; Performance Efficiency

September 2024
Case

Navigating Digital Transformation at Carrefour

By: Sunil Gupta and Emilie Billaud

In 2023, Elodie Perthuisot, Carrefour’s Executive Director for e-commerce and digital transformation, met with CEO Alexandre Bompard to discuss strategies for the company’s digital initiatives. Carrefour, a global retail giant with over 14,300 stores across 40... View Details

2014
Working Paper

Cleaning House: The Impact of Information Technology on Employee Corruption and Performance

By: Lamar Pierce, Daniel Snow and Andrew McAfee

This paper examines how firm investments in technology-based employee monitoring impact both misconduct and productivity. We use unique and detailed theft and sales data from 392 restaurant locations from five firms that adopt a theft monitoring information technology... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Information Technology; Ethics; Performance Productivity; Employees

August 2018
Supplement

Garanti Payment Systems: Digital Transformation Strategy (B)

By: Shelle M. Santana and Esel Çekin

Supplements the (A) case. Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu, executive vice president of marketing at Garanti Payment Systems (GPS), a subsidiary of Garanti Bank, is grappling with three questions. First, should GPS create its own mobile app for credit card customers or leverage... View Details

June 2001 (Revised February 2005)
Background Note

Creative Destruction of Industrial Age Management Principles and Creative Construction of Information Age Management Principles

By: Richard L. Nolan

Traces the creative destruction of industrial age management principles and creative construction of new management principles more appropriate for the information age. Includes self-administered questionnaire to permit managers to assess the status of the... View Details

Keywords: Transformation; Disruptive Innovation; Goals and Objectives; Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques; Personal Development and Career; System; Information Technology

Article

The IT Transformation Health Care Needs

By: Nikhil R. Sahni, Robert S. Huckman, Anuraag Chigurupati and David M. Cutler

In recent years, health care organizations have made sizable investments in information technology. They’ve used their IT systems to replace paper records with electronic ones and to improve billing processes, thereby boosting revenue. But so far, IT has been of little... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Information Technology; Performance Improvement; Business Model

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24 Apr 2014
News

Transforming the way the social sector innovates, learns, and improves

To help eradicate poverty worldwide, Esther Hsu Wang (MBA 2009, MPA 2010) aims to ensure that the $630 billion spent annually in international development goes toward programs that work. Wang cofounded IDinsight to inform decisions based... View Details

18 Nov 2014
Blog Post

Company Information Day Recap

A few weeks ago we successfully kicked off first-year recruiting with Company Information Day (CID). 49 companies representing 22 industries based in Boston, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, and... View Details

September 2017
Case

NBCUniversal Telemundo: Transforming Latino Television

By: Henry W. McGee, Carin-Isabel Knoop and Christine Snively

In August 2017, Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal International Group and NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, considered how the Miami-based Spanish-language TV network Telemundo could succeed in a rapidly shifting media landscape. Over the past few years,... View Details

Keywords: Television Industry; Television Advertising; Broadcasting; Telecommunications; Internet; Television Entertainment; Internet and the Web; Advertising; Digital Platforms; Digital Marketing; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Miami

August 2018
Case

Garanti Payment Systems: Digital Transformation Strategy (A)

By: Shelle M. Santana and Esel Çekin

Işıl Akdemir Evlioğlu, executive vice president of marketing at Garanti Payment Systems (GPS), a subsidiary of Garanti Bank, is grappling with three questions. First, should GPS create its own mobile app for credit card customers or leverage the bank’s already... View Details

27 Apr 2017
News

Enabling a Transformational Educational Experience

Tanvi Jain Patyal, joins the MBA Class of 2019 next fall. “This fellowship gives my wife and me the incredible opportunity to gain one of the most enriching and View Details

07 Nov 2014
News

How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition

December 1994 (Revised June 1995)
Case

State Street Boston Corporation: Leading with Information Technology

A financial institution, State Street Boston Corp., is transformed from regional bank to global custodian and money manager. The corresponding evolution of the company's information systems is illustrated, focusing on the role attributed to information technology in a... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Information Technology; Business Strategy; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; United States

May 2015
Case

Transforming Alkermes into a Global Biopharmaceutical Company

By: C. Fritz Foley and Nicholas Haas

In the summer of 2011, Jim Frates, CFO of Alkermes faced choices about how to finance the acquisition of Dublin, Ireland-based Elan Drug Technologies (EDT)—a deal that was expected to close in the fall. The case describes the history of Alkermes, provides information... View Details

Keywords: Financing; Debt; Merger; CFO; Financial Management; Biotechnology Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; United States; Europe

12 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Accounting Information as Political Currency

potentially controversial business activities—outsourcing, for example—understate their earnings if it might boost a candidate's chances of election. The research by HBS professor Karthik Ramanna and a colleague from MIT, Professor Sugata... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2025
Working Paper

Magnetic Resonance Imaging—High Quality and Radiation Free: Case Histories of Transformational Advances

By: Srikant M. Datar, Amar Bhidé and Katherine Stebbins

This case history describes how Magnetic Resource Imaging (MRI) came to complement – and partially replace -- computed tomography (CT) imaging of soft tissue. Specifically, we chronicle 1) the development of foundational techniques and prototypes (through the 1970s);... View Details

Keywords: Health Care and Treatment; Technological Innovation; Innovation Strategy; Technology Adoption; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Invention; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms